Peskin-Christensen race tests strength of power brokers, far left

The Julie Christensen versus Aaron Peskin supervisor contest in District Three has ramifications that rumble far beyond the North Beach/Chinatown corner of town. It’s the power brokers — from Mayor Ed Lee to Chinatown matriarch Rose Pak — going for broke. It’s business interests versus a vision of affordable housing.

And most of all it’s put up or shut up for the progressives, who’ve been trumpeting themselves as resurgent after stopping the 8 Washington development on the Embarcadero and successfully pushing through a ballot measure on height limits along the waterfront. Moderates say those were one-off issues, but if Peskin wins — and let’s not kid ourselves, he’s virtually the incumbent — all that talk about a new day dawning for ultra-liberal San Francisco won’t sound so far-fetched.

“It is all about who is in the best position to fight against the machine,” Pak said. “We feel very strongly we need someone to represent the community interest.”

The really interesting part of this is that the positioning has already begun, and each candidate is counter-programming his or her image.

Begin with Peskin, or Peskin 2.0 as opponents sneer. At his kickoff announcement, the former president of the Board of Supervisors talked about how he’s “softened” with age. This from someone whose angry, threatening late-night phone calls have become city legend. (Honestly, if you didn’t get one at some point, you must not have been a real political player.)

Christensen, meanwhile — generally seen as a thoughtful, sound-bite-ready personality — will probably run a tough, scorched-earth campaign. She’ll hit Peskin with his past votes, tactics and grudges, and she’ll hope to provoke an appearance by the “old Aaron” to remind voters of the verbal fistfights during his days on the board.

Behind the scenes

If you’re noticing a trend here, congratulations. Yes, this is all about Peskin. Can he rebrand himself as the kinder, gentler, seasoned politician who will take on such issues as affordable housing? Or will he be framed as an angry, obstinate opponent of all things on the Ed Lee agenda?

I thought Peskin pal Jon Golinger put it well in Heather Knight’s City Insider column Sunday about the race: “If it’s about the issues, there’s a good chance Aaron wins. If it’s about personalities, it’s going to be very tough for him.”

And, of course, in the background are the wheeler-dealers who have their own agendas. Pak, for instance, has put aside conflicts with Peskin to give him her support. If he wins, she cements her reputation as a power broker and sends a warning to Lee, whom she supported for mayor, not to cross her.

“We created him,” Pak says of the mayor. “But he forgot who brought him to the dance.”

Lee, meanwhile, took a risk and appointed Christensen instead of a Chinese American candidate. Now he wants to nudge her to the finish line. Money will not be a problem, as Lee will go all out for her.

Because, to take this to another layer, a lot of people think this is Peskin trying to stick a thumb in the mayor’s eye. As Peskin critics snipe: “Hey, Aaron, if you want to go after the mayor, why not run against him?”

The short answer is because he’d lose. Peskin has many qualities, but lack of political acumen is not one of them. He picked this race, and he wouldn’t run if he didn’t think he could win. If he does, there’s plenty of time to try for mayor.

Words into action

He does have a bit of a branding problem, though. It’s not enough to bewail the lack of affordable housing. That’s been done. What are you going to do about it? If it is just grousing about Lee, Peskin starts to sound like the old “Dr. No” politician who worked to stymie Gavin Newsom’s policies when he was mayor.

The message is to watch what campaigns do, not what they say. Take Pak, who insists she’s just a simple neighborhood organizer engaged in a quixotic long-shot campaign.

“It’s going to be an uphill battle,” she said. “I really feel we are tilting against a windmill.”

Not likely. In my experience, Pak doesn’t do whimsical windmills. She does bare-knuckle street fights.

C.W. Nevius has been a columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle for more than 20 years, covering sports, reviewing movies and spotting trends. He is currently a metro columnist, appearing on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

As a sports columnist, he climbed the ski jump at the Norway Olympics, ate bee larvae in Japan and skied in the French Alps. In all, he covered eight Olympic Games, from Australia to Spain to Korea. (And the strangest place of all, Los Angeles.)

He also wrote about riding the “Straight Talk Express” with John McCain during his first presidential bid, parachuting out of an airplane and running the Boston Marathon.

Although he reviewed movies only for a year, he did rate a blurb with his byline on the DVD box of “The Santa Clause 2,” to the undying embarrassment of his kids.

He co-wrote “Splash Hit,” about building the Giants’ waterfront stadium, with Joan Walsh. His latest book is “Crouching Father, Hidden Toddler: A Zen Guide for New Dads.”